Helping Middle School Children with Behavior Issues

Winter 2014

reetings from 806 W. Franklin St.!

As I write this, the spring semester is well underway, de-

spite colder than average temperatures in Virginia.

We have many exciting developments to report in this issue; for

example, we are launching a new feature on leadership in psy-

chology. Leadership is one of the three emphases of our coun-

seling psychology doctoral program (along with scholarship and

practice), and we are delighted to hear from Peter Zucker, Ph.D.,

who completed his studies at VCU in 1983.

We continue to excel in scholarship and report on two applied

projects conducted by our faculty. Herein you can read about

work by Joshua Langberg, Ph.D., who works with middle school

students diagnosed with ADHD to help them succeed in school.

Zewelanji Serpell, Ph.D., is also doing important work in our

schools and focuses on school-based interventions for underper-

forming students. Specifically, she is interested in harnessing

advances in cognitive science to develop and test interventions

that target students' executive functioning; one way she is doing

this is through the game of chess. These projects are just two

examples of the cutting edge science produced in the depart-

ment that provide graduate and undergraduate students the

opportunities to get involved in high impact research.

In this issue we are pleased to introduce our newest Psychology

faculty members, Charles Calderwood, Ph.D., and Marcia Winter,

Ph.D. We are excited to have their contributions to our dual mis-

sions of scholarship and pedagogy and look forward to their in-

volvement in our dynamic and ever-evolving department.

Graduate student training is a key focus of the university this

year. As the department with the largest number of doctoral

students at VCU, we invest considerable energy in our doctoral

training. In this issue we spotlight Rob Goodman, a soon-to-be-

graduate of our social psychology program, and note the recent

NIH training grant that Jasmine Abrams, a student in our health

psychology program, received.

Finally, we continue to celebrate the successes of and opportuni-

ties for our undergraduate students. Undergraduate student

Haroon Popal recently won a highly competitive scholarship

from the National Institutes of Health, based in part on his work

in Dr. Joe Porter’s lab.

As always, we would love to hear what you are up to. Please drop us a line or stop by for a visit. Wendy Kliewer Professor and Chair

PROGRAM DIRECTORS

Eric Benotsch

Health

Jeff Green

Social

Barbara Myers

Developmental

Bruce Rybarczyk

Clinical

Everett Worthington

Counseling

Jennifer Elswick

Newsmagazine Production

Jody Davis

Web and Facebook

Important Alumni Links

Submit a class note.

Update your contact information.

Join VCU Alumni .

View the alumni directory.

Get your alumni email address.

Michael Southam-Gerow Director,

Graduate Studies

Dorothy Fillmore Associate Director for Academic Operations

Wendy Kliewer Chair

Linda Zyzniewski Director,

Undergraduate Studies

4-5 Alumni news and notes

6-7 Alumni spotlight

Alexa Ebersole Carlo-Hickman

(B.S. ‘06)

8-9 New feature:

Leadership in Psychology

Peter Zucker (Ph.D. ’83)

10

CPSD Corner

Department celebrates five-year

collaboration with Puller Clinic

11 Ask the CPSD

Mom worries that her son has been

stealing from the medicine cabinet

14 Faculty scholarship recognition

College of Humanities and Sciences

15 Department news and updates

16-17 Meet our new faculty members

Charles Calderwood, Ph.D

Marcia Winter, Ph.D.

18-19 Graduate student spotlight and news

Robert Goodman, M.A.

20-21 Research spotlight

Zewelanji Serpell, Ph.D.

22 Teaching spotlight

Undergraduate preceptor program

Jennifer Joy-Gaba, Ph.D.

23 Undergraduate student spotlight

and news Haroon Popal, class of ‘14

24 New research findings

TedxRVA talk

Karen Kersting, M.A., M.S.

25 International visiting scholars

Nuran Korkmaz, Ph.D.

Muzafar Razali, Ph.D.

26 December 2013 graduates

27 Department contact information

12-13 COVER STORY

Helping middle school children with

behavior issues succeed

Joshua Langberg, Ph.D.

1970s

Jodi L. Teitelman, Ph.D. (M.S. ’78), assis-

tant professor in the Department of Occu-

pational Therapy in the VCU School of Al-

lied Health Professions, received a certifi-

cate of appreciation from the Virginia Oc-

cupational Therapy Association for her

ongoing commitment to advocacy in the

field. She also presented at the associa-

tion’s annual conference.

Teitelman is a life member of VCU Alumni.

1980s

Deborah Dugger (B.S. ’85), director of the

Chesterfield Adolescent Reporting Pro-

gram, was one of six chosen from among

more than 100 applicants to make a

presentation during the “rapid fire” ses-

sion “Innovations in Public Safety” at the

2013 Transforming Local Government

Conference in Atlanta. During her session,

which was attended by 200 people, Dug-

ger described the program she oversees

and noted that it has saved Chesterfield

County, Va. nearly $400,000. Further-

more, youths have provided more than

2,450 hours of community service, the

equivalent of a full-time county employee.

2000s

Three of our 2009 graduates who also went on to

earn their masters of science in occupational thera-

py degrees at VCU in 2012 gave us a recent update:

Nicole Baeza (B.S. ’09) serves as an occu-

pational therapist at Henrico Health and

Rehabilitation in Highland Springs, Va.

Courtney English (B.S. ’09) is working at

Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU

and its Petersburg therapy center.

Erin Laffoon (B.S. ’09) is working at

Hopewell Heathcare in Hopewell, Va.

Christina Mason (B.S. ’09) is working at

HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of

Petersburg.

2010s

Katie Holcomb (B.S. ’11), artistic director

at Coalition Theater, was named one of

Style Weekly’s 2013 “Top 40 Under 40.”

Located in Downtown Richmond’s Art Dis-

trict, Coalition Theater is home to some of

Richmond’s best comedy shows and im-

prov classes.

Leila Islam (M.S. '03/HSC, Ph.D.) will finish

her postdoctoral fellowship at the VA Con-

necticut Health Care System in West Ha-

ven this August and would love to return

to VCU to begin her career as a health psy-

chologist thereafter; she is actively re-

searching opportunities. She and boy-

friend Jacob were married in a beautiful

ceremony in her hometown in Portsmouth

in December. Her sister Nadia, who is a

current graduate student in our clinical

program, was in the wedding.

Andrea Konig (Ph.D. ‘11) presented at

VCU Psychiatry’s Grand Rounds in Novem-

ber. The title of her talk was “Physical Dis-

ability and Diversity: Cultural Competence

in Clinical Practice.”

Kathy Reid-Quinones (M.S. ‘07, Ph.D. ‘11)

was promoted to clinical/forensic psy-

chologist supervisor in the child abuse

program at Children's Hospital of The

King's Daughters in Norfolk. She is the

supervisor of the mental health team,

which includes licensed clinical social

workers and psychology trainees.

Erin Wood (B.S. ’05, M.S. ’07, Ph.D. ’10)

started a tenure track job at Catawba Col-

lege in late summer 2010. She officially

ended the Ph.D. fun in the winter of that

same year and is still plugging away at

“this very different institution.” At Cataw-

ba, she teaches Data Analysis for the Be-

havioral Sciences, as well as General Psy-

Alumni News and Notes

Do you FEAR THE HAVOC? Join a pre-game social in a city near you!

chology, Health Psychology, Behavior

Modification, Fundamentals of Learning,

Cognition and Neuroscience (all three lab

courses) and also a multi-disciplinary first

year seminar with both an honors and a

non-honors section. A new course she

and Catawba’s poet in residence are de-

veloping is an honors Death and Dying

course. “So, lots of breadth, and I hope

some depth, too,” Wood says.

She is being supported in an investigation

of the role of technology in higher educa-

tion, in particular how it works in institu-

tions like hers. Wood recently presented

a poster at the Teaching Professor Tech-

nology Conference in Atlanta discussing

the various aspects of integrating technol-

ogy into pedagogy from a multi-system

perspective. She has also just started her

own research investigating the role of

wellness/healthcare app use in health-

related self-efficacy. Wood will present

her pilot data at the 2014 Annual South-

eastern Psychology Association meeting in

Nashville next month. This will be her

third time in so many years both pre-

senting at this conference, as well as tak-

ing undergraduates there to present work,

as well.

On a personal note, she is a relatively new

homeowner, a partner, a mom and an

aspiring jogger. Her son Micah is nearly 2

½ and she refers to him as “cannonball

with legs!”

The VCU School of Allied Health Profes-

sions‘ Department of Gerontolo-

gy recently held a reception to honor

Tracey Gendron (M.S. ‘95/AHP, M.S. ‘12,

Ph.D. ‘13), an assistant professor in their

department, for her completion of all re-

quirements for her Ph.D. in developmen-

tal psychology in December. Gendron

presented her research on the profession-

al identity development of gerontologists

and gerontological specialists.

Gendron teaches The Biology and Physiol-

ogy of Aging, Research Methods, Grant

Writing and electives in the Department

of Gerontology. She is also an ASPiRE fac-

ulty fellow and a service learning faculty

fellow at VCU.

Her research interests include the profes-

sional identity development and career

commitment of gerontologists; education

through community engagement and ser-

vice learning; aging anxiety; ageism and

gerontophobia; LGBT aging; and staff

knowledge and quality of care.

Alumni News and Notes

Check out the results from the recent alumni survey.

Thanks for participating!

Wood, left, Micah Aerton and Aaron Stevenson

Alumna Spotlight Alexa Ebersole Carlo-Hickman (B.S. ‘06)

Carlo-Hickman poses in front of Mt. Rainier. She and

her husband plan to climb the summit in September.

Give us a summary of your educational and/or career journey since you gradu-ated in 2006.

After graduating VCU in 2006, I joined the

military reserves which helped lead to

my current career as a government ana-

lyst. As an analyst, I focus heavily on

both qualitative and quantitative re-

search to create reports for a myriad of

government organizations. It can be very

interesting (and frustrating), but I love

being able to compile all forms of data to

create a complete story on my topics.

Who were your greatest influences at VCU and how did they shape you into the person you are today?

Linda Zyzniewski, Ph.D., had a huge im-

pact both before and after I graduated.

I’ve never considered myself a “math

person,” so I was apprehensive when it

came time to take the psych statistics

course. Being the incredible teacher she

is, Dr. Z did an amazing job conveying the

complex mathematic principles of statis-

tics. I actually did very well in her class.

At the risk of sounding corny, she made

me realize that I can do math. I don’t

currently work with psych-specific statis-

tics, but I do plenty of other statistics-

based research.

One evening while I was running some

research stats in the psych computer lab,

I ran into a few problems with my data

and had no idea what I was doing wrong.

Thankfully, Dr. Z was still in the building

and was willing to help me figure it out.

She showed me where I went wrong and

got me back on track. It sounds like a

simple story, but it was probably pushing

8pm and she didn’t have to stay to help

me. It meant a lot and I still appreciate it

to this day.

A few years after I graduated, I realized

grad school was something I would like

to pursue, but having been out of school

for a few years, I was concerned I didn’t

have enough recent research experience.

I reached out to Dr. Z who put me in

touch with an awesome post-doc , Ste-

ven Kinsey, Ph.D., who was conducting

research at the VCU Pharmacology and

Toxicology lab downtown. I volunteered

in his lab for about six months and was

able to contribute to one of his published

papers. Steve is now a professor at West

Virginia University. I jokingly like to think

I helped him get there. While I haven’t

decided on a graduate program just yet, I

gained the research experience I was

looking for and know that Steve and Dr. Z

are there to help with whatever I may

need.

What did you like best about your VCU

experience?

Overall, I liked the diversity at VCU. I

come from a very small town, so meeting

and working with so many eclectic and

unique people was great. I learned how

to work with a variety of personalities

and how to solve problems diplomatical-

ly . That skill comes in handy working

with the government.

But by far, my favorite thing at VCU was

playing for the Women’s Rugby Team.

The team was new at the time, so we

were all figuring it out together and real-

izing just how crazy you have to be to

play that sport. I got to know a lot of

great girls and gained a lot of great

friends from it. It was an awesome expe-

rience that I’ll never forget.

What was your favorite Psych course?

I think it’s a tie between Personality and

Physiological Psych. Physiological Psych

was extremely interesting to me in that it

provided the scientific, biological expla-

nations behind psychology. I am a very

fact- and data-oriented person, so learn-

ing the science behind the mind and be-

havior was fascinating. It still is.

Personality was also fun. Like everyone

else in the class, I had fun applying the

personality disorders to my friends and

family. But now, having an in-depth un-

derstanding of the complexities behind

personalities helps me as a manager and

leader. If I can truly assess a person’s

work (or life) motivation, I can do my

best to provide a tailored environment

where they can thrive, and in return, the

program retains a great worker. It

doesn’t always work out like that, but I

know the value of understanding differ-

ent personalities and how to work with

them.

What are your plans for the future?

Grad school is still a goal. I’ve been tak-

ing my sweet time trying to decide on a

program. I debate whether to go for a

work-oriented program (i.e. International

Relations or M.B.A.) or a less applicable

but more scientific program. Career

wise, I’m in the process of transitioning

to cyber analysis, so maybe a program in

cyber policy would be better. The debate

continues.

Do you have any updates from your per-sonal life you’d like to share?

I got married to my high school (and

VCU) boyfriend in April 2012. We’d been

dating on and off since we were 15. It’s

pretty cool to be married to someone

I’ve literally known half my life. My mar-

ried name is Alexa Carlo-Hickman. I hap-

pened to marry the one guy on earth

who already had a hyphenated last

name.

“..learning the

science behind the

mind and behavior

was fascinating.

It still is.”

I am fortunate to serve as the presi-

dent and CEO of Stars Behavioral

Health Group (SBHG), a community-

based behavioral health, child wel-

fare, education and training compa-

ny in the state of California. Stars

employs more than 1,000 staff and

operates in the five biggest counties

in the state, delivering system-wide

training in evidence-based practices

in more than 10 states throughout

the U.S. I started the organization

24 years ago with a senior partner

and served as clinical director and

vice president until 18 months ago,

when I became the president and CEO. The president and CEO is

responsible for the successful operation of the entire SBHG en-

terprise. This includes planning, management, financial steward-

ship, program effectiveness, community relationships, regulatory

and ethical compliance, intelligent use of human resources, staff

training and development and purposeful development of or-

ganizational culture and growth. Other key responsibilities in-

clude strategic planning, coordination of employee stock owner-

ship activities, legal management and external relationships.

The president and CEO also represents the facility and its pro-

grams to governmental agencies, national, state and local agen-

cy partners and the community.

My pathway from VCU to my current role reflects the academic

and professional training I received and personalized to fulfill my

goals, along with great assistance and support from my adviser

and other VCU faculty. More important than my Strong-

Campbell code, was the fact that as a teenager, I held a variety

of small jobs and always liked the world of work, from the role to

the rewards. These jobs included everything from delivering

newspapers to counseling the intellectually disabled at summer

camp and being a waiter (Tobacco Company).

When I began the VCU M.A./Ph.D. program in 1977 as a new

university B.A. graduate (who knew nothing about counseling!),

my pre-practicum professor invited me to be a training assistant.

This involved two human relations contracts he was leading to

provide human relations training to Virginia Commonwealth tax

agents and to help Commonwealth Troopers identify and work

more effectively with the dangerous and seriously mentally ill

person. Through my regular informal discussions with VCU fac-

ulty, I began to develop a vision of a

professional career that combined

psychology, management and lead-

ership. I discovered that I was eligi-

ble to take elective classes in the

Graduate School of Business, so I

took both the Management and Or-

ganizational Development classes.

These were very interesting and

they seemed such a great fit with

my way of thinking. It was a true

“ah-ha” experience. In retrospect, I

wish I had taken the finance or ac-

counting classes, too. Later, my ad-

viser supported me in taking a

practicum in organizational development at Phillip Morris, where

I worked as an assistant at a quality circle. It was great to see

applied psychology in an industrial setting. Again, it all seemed

easy, within reach and a natural fit to my way of thinking.

Once I completed my doctorate, I went to work at an adolescent

residential treatment center in Los Angeles and was soon a su-

pervisor, manager, clinical director and administrator. Over the

years, I’ve paid more focused attention to leadership and emo-

tional intelligence, which along with the more buttoned-down

skills of management and planning, have been the main skills I

deploy daily. I have kept my clinical skills up to date, especially

in some of the evidence-based practices such as Aggression Re-

placement Training, Functional Family Therapy and trauma in-

formed care such as Attachment, Regulation and Competency

and Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescents Responding to

Chronic Stress. These capabilities influence my approach and

contributions to the program leadership team of Stars.

My personal approach to leadership takes into account two pri-

mary factors. The first factor appreciates the role that environ-

ment and situation play in choosing which leadership style I se-

lect to evidence. I exert greater direction and leadership at the

beginning of a project, identifying objectives, pathways, due

dates, general budgets and more, and less direction and leader-

ship as the project matures. Similarly, I provide more direction

and leadership to new staff and career-beginning staff versus

veteran and highly experienced colleagues.** Finally, I pay atten-

tion to the distinction between work partners when they are an

actor versus an observer and I provide guidance and leadership

to work partners to make use of perspectives and contributing

New Feature: Leadership in Psychology

My Career Pathway in

Counseling Psychology

and Organizational

Leadership

Peter J. Zucker, Ph.D.

Counseling Psychology

Class of 1983

factors that may have been underemphasized.

The second factor I appreciate is the role of emotional intelli-

gence in guiding my leadership style. By this, I mean attaining

and displaying awareness of self and others, as well as interper-

sonal effectiveness, self-regulation, cultural attunement and per-

sonal integrity. All of these components initially came into focus

during my graduate education, then developed over time in each

job I had, along with the supervision I received and sought. To

this day, I am a big fan of coaching and provide mentorship to

more than 30 people in my current

organization on a casual but regular

manner via scheduled coffee

meetings, visits to their teams, etc.

This is a great way to guide and lead

the team, shape the organizational

culture and address my responsibil-

ity for talent management and suc-

cession planning (along with more

specific human resources activities).

I receive several forms of coaching

currently. This ranges from an or-

ganizational development consultant who guides me in top team

dynamics one hour per month, to a CEO circle I meet with one

morning per month and a finance coach who has helped me

read a P&L statement and hone in on factors limiting my compa-

ny’s financial performance. I am amazed at how my teammates

pay sharp attention to the things I say and do. By nature a casu-

al and informal person, I have had to learn to craft my comments

and emails carefully to assure precision in my communication.

One way I keep my head on straight in times of uncertainty or

great negativity is to take the time

to identify my inner emotional reac-

tion to the event, but make sure to

interpret and not gratify the com-

pelling affect. Another way to say

this is, “Name it to tame it.” In my

years in the field, I find I have al-

ready experienced quite a few suc-

cesses, as well as a handful of set-

backs; it’s all part of the story and

has reassured me that problem solv-

ing, resiliency and reliance on my

team and work partners will result

Zucker in Richmond in 1981.

“I believe leaders are

both born and made,

and the development

pathway is interactive.”

in the best outcome I could have managed at that time in that

situation.

There is currently great interest and need for psychologists to

assume leadership roles in many health care and service

settings, along with the management and consulting fields. My

advice for doctoral students pursuing this path is to first em-

brace the contributions of counseling psychology to provide a

firm grounding in psychological science, counseling, an apprecia-

tion of process and interpersonal dynamics and advanced capa-

bility in mathematics, statistics and computers. Having this skill

set and grounding has truly allowed me to make far greater use

of my business and management assets. Along with the study of

psychology, one way to proceed might be to pursue academic

and field experience activities that will not only introduce the

concepts, skills and roles of the organizational world, but the

leadership skills, too. I believe leaders are both born and made,

and the development pathway is interactive. It is important to

get exposure to persons in the management, consulting, training

and business worlds, including their background, perceptions,

language and world views. There is an entire field of literature

and science on management, organizations, leadership and hu-

man factors. Integrating this with your scientific and profession-

al preparation and experience in counseling psychology will pre-

pare you well for the challenges ahead.

Finally, be purposeful, focused and warm about engaging with

and making use of supervisors and mentors. Be open to both

receiving and giving supervision. Keep in touch with prior men-

tors, if even just once a year. I continue to occasionally visit

mentors who have something to share with me, and find each

contact rich and valuable. Our preparation as psychologists al-

lows us to make use of these richly developmental opportunities

perhaps better than most. Make the most of it!

**See my dissertation — Zucker, P.J. & Worthington, E.L., Jr.

(1986). Supervision of interns and postdoctoral applicants for

licensure in university counseling centers. Journal of Counseling

Psychology, 33, 87-89 – which found that interns requested and

made more use of explicit direction than post-docs.

(Continued from page 9, Peter Zucker)

The Department of Psychology is proudly celebrating five years of

successful collaboration with the Lewis B. Puller, Jr. Veterans Bene-

fits Clinic at the College of William & Mary. This joint effort was

initiated to help clear out an overwhelming federal backlog of vet-

erans’ benefits cases.

Since 2008, our clinical and counseling doctoral students at the

Center for Psychological Services and Development (CPSD) have

partnered with the Puller Clinic’s law students to serve veterans by

expediting the process through which their eligibility for benefits is

determined.

The Puller Clinic provides free services to military veterans who are

petitioning to increase their benefits, or are submitting benefits

applications for the first time. They often refer veterans to the

CPSD, where psychologists-in-training provide assessment and

counseling services. For example, CPSD students conduct objective

psychological evaluations, which may be used by the Puller Clinic to

support their veterans’ cases.

In August of this year, Senator Mark Warner and Secretary of Vet-

erans Affairs Eric Shinseki recognized the Puller Clinic as a national

“best practices” program and the first law school clinic in the na-

tion to be certified as a member of the Fully Developed Claims

Community of Practice. In his press briefing, Senator Warner de-

scribed this as a “win-win-win” situation for veterans, the VA and

the law students. Our department is proud to be a part of this

equation. In September, Mary Beth Heller, Ph.D., interim director

of the CPSD, accompanied Puller Clinic staff to Washington, D.C.,

where they met with Senator Warner prior to an outreach event

for homeless veterans. At that meeting, Senator Warner reiterated

his praise for the successful collaboration.

Read the press release from the U.S. Department of

Veterans Affairs.

“Name it to tame it.”

I had a knee replacement surgery a couple of months ago and was given a prescription for pain killers. I only used a couple of those pills, but yesterday I developed a severe pain in that knee again and when I went to find the bottle, I discovered that though it had been nearly full the last time I opened it, only a few pills remained. Puzzled, I asked my husband if he had used any and he reported that he had not. I am worried that my teenage son could be the one who has used them (no one else has access to our house) and I'm not sure how to handle this. You see, we caught him smoking about nine months ago and have worried since then about his cu-riosity about trying possibly harmful substances. I know him well enough to know that if we ask him about it, he would just say he doesn't know any-thing about it whether he does or not. Can you suggest the best way for me and husband to approach him about this?

First, let me say, “Good for you, Mom.” This is such a difficult issue that some parents opt to avoid confrontation, keep their

fingers crossed and hope for the best. By conscientiously monitoring the medications in your home, you’ve already taken a big

step toward keeping your son safe and healthy.

Before beginning the conversation with your son, ask yourself if you’ve noticed other changes in him. These may include a

drop in grades, skipping school, a different (and often more secretive) group of friends, withdrawal

from family and activities, less attention to hygiene and/or changes in sleep or appetite patterns.

Marked irritability and sullenness – or the opposite, unexplained giddiness – may signal intoxi-

cation or the residual effects of substance use. While adolescence is unequivocally a season

of change, as the number and severity of these signs increase, so should your level of con-

cern.

Work through your own anger, disappointment and anxiety by perhaps talking to your hus-

band or a trusted friend. Your goal is to have a dialogue with your son, so it’s important to

remain calm and open. Being in control of your own emotions will help you resist the urge to

lecture or interrogate.

Pick the right time to talk—ideally, a quiet time when your son isn’t engaged in other activities and you don’t have other press-

ing tasks. Begin by expressing your love and concern for him, then in a direct manner state the facts: because your prescription

medication is missing, you are concerned that he may have been taking it. Then, wait for him to respond.

Don’t be surprised if your son denies taking your prescription and don’t get caught up in the need

to prove it. Empathize with the challenges of adolescence and stick to the message of love, con-

cern and support. That said, be very clear about your family’s rules and what the consequences

for drug use will be. (And, never threaten something you won’t/can’t enforce!) Be prepared to

seek professional help if your son admits a problem or if you remain concerned despite his denial.

Lastly, thoughtfully consider subtle, unintended messages your son may be getting from you, his

dad or other family members about how to cope with stress and negative emotions, including the

movies and TV shows you watch together. Keep the conversation going and stay involved with

your son. You may be interested to learn that research shows, for example, that kids who regular-

ly eat dinner with their families are less likely to use drugs.

Send an anonymous

question about mental

health and treatment

issues through

our secure messaging

system.

Center for Psychological Services and Development,

612-620 N. Lombardy St.

Mary Beth Heller, Ph.D., is

interim director of the CPSD.

Succeeding in school can be challenging

for any child, but the journey may be es-

pecially difficult for youngsters with atten-

tion and behavior problems.

Joshua Langberg, Ph.D., as-

sistant professor of clinical

psychology in the Virginia

Commonwealth University

College of Humanities and

Sciences, is hoping to make

a difference for those chil-

dren.

Langberg has spent the better part of the

past 10 years working with schools across

the country to develop interventions to

help middle school students with condi-

tions such as attention deficit hyperactivi-

ty disorder (ADHD) succeed in school.

For the next four years, Langberg and co-

investigator Albert D. Farrell, Ph.D., pro-

fessor of clinical psychology and director

of the VCU Clark-Hill Institute for Positive

Youth Development, will be leading a $2.4

million grant from the Institute of Educa-

tion Sciences to compare two different

school-based interventions to determine

which one may offer the most effective

approach. The Institute of Education Sci-

ences is the research arm of the United

States Department of Education.

In 2008, prior to coming to VCU, Langberg

developed the HOPS Manual – Homework,

Organization, and Planning Skills, an inter-

vention for middle school students with

ADHD that is implemented by school psy-

chologists and/or counselors. From 2009

to 2012, Langberg worked with a number

of school districts to devise an acceptable

model for teaching these skills to students

in schools. This was transferred into the

manual, which outlines a step-by-step,

session-by-session approach to be imple-

mented in the school setting. This will be

one of the interventions evaluated in his

new study.

While HOPS was designed as a one-on-one

approach, once Langberg met with school

psychologists and counselors, they indicat-

ed that they saw themselves also using

HOPS in smaller groups or as class-wide

interventions. One school decided that

they would instruct all students to use the

HOPS system for organizing their school

materials. So Langberg went back and re-

vised the manual so it could be used in

multiple ways and provides flexibility.

Working directly with schools to develop

the intervention resulted in a program

that is effective and feasible to implement

– directly impacting the lives of students,

families and teachers.

As co-founder of VCU’s Center for ADHD

Research, Education and Service, which

provides much needed evidence-based

ADHD services to the Richmond area,

Langberg is also involved with training

clinical and counseling psychology gradu-

ate students at VCU to provide evidence-

based interventions for children, adoles-

cents and families with attention and be-

havior problems.

Below Langberg provides insight into his

work, where he hopes his field is headed

and his passion for being a mentor.

How is the translational nature and im-pact of your research on children and schools relevant?

I focus on developing interventions that

can be implemented directly in school

settings. This ensures that all children

have access to care. I also focus on devel-

oping interventions that are really feasible

for schools to use. Many times, that’s not

the case – what we develop in research is

really not usable in school and community

settings. So I try to develop interventions

for these youth that the school can really

take and apply.

Many children with attention and behav-

ior problems struggle with the skills need-

ed to learn and succeed academically,

such as organization, time management

and planning skills. These skills are what

all children and adolescents need to know

in order to get homework done and to

study for tests effectively and in a timely

manner. These skills continue to be very

important into adulthood and are neces-

sary to be successful in college and in

Helping Middle School Children

with Behavior Issues

Courtesy of Sathya Achia Abraham, Science Writer/Editor, VCU Across the Spectrum

Langberg

work settings.

Children with ADHD have particular diffi-

culty with these skills. They may have the

capacity to be A-B students, they are pro-

crastinating, losing their homework, and

as a result, they may receive C’s and D’s in

their classes. Most of the interventions I

have developed focus on helping children

with ADHD in middle school do better aca-

demically. The main reason to focus on

this age range is that middle school stu-

dents with attention and behavioral issues

often have a hard time with the transition

to middle school. The context changes

considerably – think about going from ele-

mentary school, where there is one teach-

er who really provides a lot of support and

monitoring, to middle school, where stu-

dents have at least four teachers who

each assign different homework and can-

not provide the level of support and moni-

toring that was offered in elementary

school. Children often struggle with this

transition and so most of my interventions

focus on supporting kids academically dur-

ing and after that transition.

We really focus on teaching students how

to organize their materials, plan ahead for

the completion of tests and projects, rec-

ord homework accurately and in sufficient

detail and to manage their time effectively

and efficiently. Importantly, we also show

families and schools how to use these in-

terventions so they can help reinforce and

monitor students using the skills.

The family and school piece are im-

portant. There are really no interventions

for youth with attention and behavioral

difficulties that work when delivered to

children alone. We teach the child the

skill, but what’s really important is teach-

ing parents and school personnel how to

monitor and encourage youth over time

so they maintain the use of these skills.

Where do you see the future of your re-search field headed?

I hope research will focus on developing

feasible, easy-to-use interventions, even if

that means that we have smaller effects

and we have to continue to intervene over

time.

I hope we will move away from testing

interventions that take “the kitchen sink

approach” and that target every behavior

the child is having difficulty with at the

same time. We’ve been doing that for a

number of years and you can generate

great effects, but the problem is that the-

se interventions are costly and often re-

quire lots of staff time, effort and training

to implement. I hope to see the field mov-

ing toward interventions that can really be

disseminated. The goal is supposed to be

that we develop not just something that

works, but that can also be used widely.

Last, I hope the field moves toward a

more chronic approach to treatment.

Most research now is short term. We

want to see what we can cram into eight

weeks and then cross our fingers and

hope improvements last the rest of their

lives. Frankly, that doesn’t work. So I think

we should move toward smaller doses of

intervention delivered continuously over

longer periods of time. Maybe this will

help with it being more feasible.

As a research mentor, what do you want your students to walk away with?

Being a mentor is honestly the most en-

joyable part of my job. I view training up-

and-coming clinicians and researchers as

one of the primary responsibilities of my

job.

In my case, during my post-doctoral and

graduate training, I had some excellent

and invested mentors who took the time

to teach me how to be effective as a re-

searcher and a clinician. Working with

those mentors throughout graduate

school and their support is really what got

me started on this path and why I have

been successful with a research and train-

ing career.

I currently mentor students at all levels –

from undergraduates to post-doctoral

scholars. I expect my students to work

very hard, but most leave with the skills

both academically and interpersonally

that they need to be successful and are

able to make informed career choices.

What advice do you have for students looking to enter the research field?

The environment is pretty competitive

these days and students have to get start-

ed early. I think it’s especially important

for undergraduates and early graduate

students to understand this. Mentors

don’t come to you – students need to be

assertive and seek out mentors. It may

take many tries to connect with the right

one, but the search needs to start early.

Coursework only counts for half of the

game, if not less. Students need to be pro-

active and work with people who are do-

ing research. That is going to set them on

the right path.

VCU Psychology Receives $2.4 Million

Grant to Examine Skills Intervention for Students with ADHD

The Institute of Educational Sci-

ences awarded a $2.4 million

grant to VCU Psychology to ex-

amine the “Efficacy of an Organi-

zational Skills Intervention for

Middle School Students with

ADHD.” Joshua Langberg, Ph.D.,

is the principal investigator of

the project.

Read more.

Faculty author awards are given to

faculty members listed as primary author

or editor for a book published in 2013.

Recipients from Psychology were

Michael Southam-Gerow, Ph.D., for the

book “Emotion Regulation in Children and

Adolescents: A Practitioner’s

Guide” (Guilford Press) and

Everett L. Worthington, Ph.D., for the

book “Moving Forward: Six Steps to For-

giving Yourself and Breaking Free From

the Past” (WaterBrook/Multnomah).

Scholarly award winners are faculty

members who are the recipients of

awards presented by outside organiza-

tions to recognize scholarship or scholarly

works between January 1 and June 30,

2013. Recipients from Psychology were

Thomas E. Eissenberg, Ph.D., member of

the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on

Human Research Protections, Department

of Health and Human

Services;

Shawn Utsey, Ph.D., Ful-

bright scholar, U.S. De-

partment of State’s Bu-

reau of Educational and

Cultural Affairs and

Everett L. Worthington,

Ph.D., fellow of Ameri-

can Psychological Associ-

ation’s Division 17, Soci-

ety for Counseling Psy-

chology.

Principal investiga-tors 2013 are faculty

members who were

principal investigators on

one or more external grants whose total

expenditures during fiscal year 2013 were

at least $40,000. Recipients from Psychol-

ogy were

Faye Z. Belgrave, Ph.D., for the project

“Substance Abuse and HIV Prevention

Among African American College Stu-

dents” funded by the Substance Abuse &

Mental Health Services Administration;

Thomas E. Eissenberg, Ph.D., for the pro-

ject “Waterpipe Tobacco Smoke Toxi-

cant Sampling in the Natural Environ-

ment” funded by the National Institute on

Drug Abuse;

Albert D. Farrell, Ph.D., for the project “A

Comprehensive Approach to Youth Vio-

lence Prevention” funded by the Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention;

Clarissa S. Holmes, Ph.D., for the project

“Parenting and Control Among Young Chil-

dren with Type 1 Diabetes” funded by the

National Institute of Diabetes and Diges-

tive and Kidney Diseases;

Joshua M. Langberg, Ph.D., for the project

“Organizational Skills Intervention for Chil-

dren with ADHD” funded by the U.S. De-

partment of Education;

Suzanne E. Mazzeo, Ph.D., for the project

“Nourishing Families to Promote Healthy

Eating and Exercise In Overweight Adoles-

cents” funded by the National Institute of

Child Health and Human Development;

Bryce McLeod, Ph.D., and Michael A.

Southam-Gerow, Ph.D., for the project

“Development and Validation of Child

Therapy Integrity Measures” funded by

the National Institute of Mental Health;

Barbara J. Myers, Ph.D., for the project

“Parenting Children of Promise” funded by

the Virginia Department of Corrections;

Bruce D. Rybarczyk, Ph.D., for the project

“Psychological Services for the Uninsured”

funded by the Health

Resources and Services

Administration;

Terri N. Sullivan, Ph.D.,

for the project

“Promoting Social, Emo-

tional and Behavioral

Competence” funded by

the U.S. Department of

Education and

Everett L. Worthington,

Ph.D., for the project

“An Interdisciplinary Ap-

proach to the Study of

Humility” funded by the

John Templeton Founda-

tion.

Everett Worthington, Ph.D., left, and Suzanne Mazzeo, Ph.D., pose for a picture with James Cole-

man, Ph.D., dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences, at the awards reception.

The College of Humanities and Sciences proudly recognized its faculty’s accom-

plishments at a reception in October. The following are recipients from the Depart-

ment of Psychology. A full listing of the College’s awardees can be found here and

photos from the event can be viewed here.

Elijah Christman, fiscal

technician, completed the

VCU Sponsored Projects

Administration Certifica-

tion Program. This is a

VCU program aimed at fos-

tering and disseminating

knowledge about sponsored projects ad-

ministration.

What is the ideal age for

parenthood? The Science

of Relationships blog re-

cently featured an excerpt

from a chapter Jody Davis,

Ph.D., wrote for the 2011

book, “The Science of Rela-

tionships: Answers to Your Questions

About Dating, Marriage, and Family” ad-

dressing this very question. Read the ex-

cerpt.

Tom Eissenberg, Ph.D.,

continues to make head-

lines following the an-

nouncement of his $18.1

million grant establishing

the Center for the Study of

Tobacco Products in our de-

partment. Eissenberg’s work has most

recently been featured in a video and ex-

pert opinion forum for Legacy for Health,

a foundation that advocates for longer,

healthier lives through education, govern-

ment outreach, community initiatives and

research.

VCU’s research blog Across the Spectrum

also recently featured his collaborative

work with Penn State colleague, Jonathan

Foulds, Ph.D. The research focuses on

electronic cigarettes, work that continues

with a planned clinical trial of 520 smokers

– half recruited at Penn State and half at

VCU. The trial will evaluate the effects of

cigarette substitutes on smokers who have

decided to not quit smoking. The results of

the study will advise the FDA on regulation

of novel tobacco products.

Finally, Reuters UK tapped Eissenberg’s

expertise for this article on the rising num-

ber of Florida teens trying hookah

(waterpipe) smoking.

Geraldine Lotze, Ph.D.,

was elected to the board

of trustees for Jackson

Feild Homes, an agency

that provides intensive

therapeutic services for

boys and girls in residential

homes and in community-based services.

The Lott-Carey Herald mag-

azine recently published a

feature on Micah

McCreary, Ph.D., and the

work he has done in Haiti.

Read the article on page 17.

Reforming Virginia’s mental

health system is a popular topic of conver-

sation following the tragic incident involv-

ing Virginia State Senator

Creigh Deeds and his son

in December. James

McCullough, Ph.D.,

weighed in on the conver-

sation in an op-ed piece in

the Richmond Times-

Dispatch advocating for a community-level

prevention approach.

Listeners of local public

radio station WCVE (88.9)

recently heard Bruce

Rybarczyk, Ph.D., explain

how his “boot camp” for

chronic insomnia works.

Listen to the interview and

a patient testimonial.

Congratulations to Victoria

Shivy, Ph.D., for winning a

2013-14 service learning

award through VCU’s Divi-

sion of Community Engage-

ment. In her project

“Human Behavior in the

Parks: Recycling,” students in PSYC 317

will work with Central Virginia Waste Man-

agement Services, the City of Richmond,

James River Park System and Friends of

James River Park to develop and imple-

ment survey instruments that will assist

with understanding attitudes towards re-

cycling. It is hoped that the outcomes of

the survey will provide important infor-

mation to help increase recycling partici-

pation.

Shawn Utsey, Ph.D., was

featured in a recent Rich-

mond Times-Dispatch arti-

cle and VCU News article

highlighting his Fulbright

scholarship to study in

South Africa. Utsey will

conduct an oral history project to examine

the extent to which apartheid continues to

affect South Africans.

Everett Worthington,

Ph.D., was profiled as

part of a front page story

in The News Leader, a

newspaper that serves

localities in Virginia’s

Shenandoah Valley. The

article was called “Out of

the Depths I Cry to You, Oh, Lord” and

detailed the struggle of a minister to for-

give his murdering, arsonist son-in-law for

the death of his grandson and the injuries

to his daughter. Worthington is an expert

in forgiveness and shared his own person-

al tragedies and how he came to forgive.

Department News and Updates

Rybarczyk

Eissenberg

Utsey

McCreary

Shivy

Davis

McCullough

Lotze

Worthington

Christman

Charles Calderwood, Ph.D., joined our facul-

ty in January as an assistant professor in the

social psychology program. He is a native of

Maine and has spent the last year and a

half living abroad in Lausanne, Switzerland.

What is your educational background?

I attended Tulane University for my under-

graduate studies and received my B.S. in

psychology in 2006. I enrolled in graduate

school at the Georgia Institute of Technolo-

gy and received my M.S. in 2009 and my

Ph.D. in 2012. My primary concentration in

graduate school was industrial/

organizational psychology, with a minor in

quantitative methods.

What brought you to VCU?

I am excited about joining a psychology de-

partment with such a large impact on the

broader university and community. I think

that being involved with one of the largest

doctoral programs and undergraduate ma-

jors at VCU is very exciting, as it will give me

the opportunity to interact with many stu-

dents from diverse backgrounds and ap-

proaches to psychological inquiry. Being

able to teach and conduct research in this

type of environment is very appealing, as

diverse perspectives greatly enhance dis-

cussions in classroom and research settings.

As an applied psychologist, I am also very

drawn to the strong emphasis in this de-

partment on improving people’s lives using

a variety of approaches. Given that my re-

search focuses on work (non-work relation-

ships, stress and occupational health pro-

cesses), it is a good fit with this general fo-

cus. I believe that this position will give me

opportunities to conduct impactful collabo-

rative research with undergraduate stu-

dents, graduate students and faculty mem-

bers at VCU.

Describe your past research experience.

I have been involved in research in psychol-

ogy for the last 10 years. My research ca-

reer began as an undergraduate at Tulane,

where I assisted faculty members and grad-

uate students with research on topics of

managerial ethical decision making, work-

place discrimination and intergroup bias in

virtual teams. I also had the opportunity to

spend a summer doing applied research at

Vanderbilt Medical Center, where I was in-

volved in investigating patient safety issues

in surgical settings. Most recently, I spent

five years working in the Knowledge and

Skill Lab at Georgia Tech, where I was in-

volved in a number of research projects on

topics of work – non-work relationships,

occupational health, subjective fatigue,

adult cognitive training and student aca-

demic performance.

What are your current research interests and activities?

My research interests center on the impact

of daily and enduring influences on work –

non-work relationships and occupational

health. My most recent work has focused

on investigating employees’ off-job reac-

tions to encountered daily work stressors

and the implications of these reactions for

outcomes of employee well-being, work/

non-work conflict and perceived health. I

am currently broadening the scope of this

research by investigating the individual and

joint effects of specific daily events, person-

ality traits and work characteristics to the

duration of the post-work stress response,

while also exploring short and longterm

influences on work/non-work relationship

experiences over time. I have also begun to

extend my research to educational con-

texts, through investigations of technology

usage demands and strategies in student

populations, with attention to the role of

technology in linking academic and non-

academic domains of student life.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I like to hike, travel, cook, watch movies,

read and write.

Marcia Winter, Ph.D., joined our depart-

ment in February as an assistant professor

in the developmental program.

What is your educational background?

I earned my Ph.D. from the University of

Rochester in 2006. From there, I completed

postdoctoral fellowships at Syracuse Uni-

versity and the University of Rochester

Medical Center.

What brought you to VCU?

This is a tough question because there were

many things that drew me to VCU. The fac-

ulty is diverse, but with many connected

interests; I see this as a place where collab-

Meet our New Faculty Members

Charles Calderwood, Ph.D.

Marcia Winter, Ph.D.

orations are fostered and I appreciate that.

I believe this is also reflected in the produc-

tivity and success of the department. In

addition, I appreciate the connections of

the psychology department with the VCU

Medical Center and the broader Richmond

community. Not only is that essential for

my research, but I also like to stay connect-

ed to the people we serve. Similarly, I look

forward to working with the VCU students,

about whom I have heard such great

things. Finally, I have found all of the facul-

ty, staff and graduate students to be very

welcoming and helpful, and I am looking

forward to being a part of the team and

exploring all that VCU and Richmond have

to offer.

Describe your past research experience.

My research focuses on the mechanisms by

which chronic stress and threat impacts

child development. Of particular interest is

how children are affected emotionally, es-

pecially in how they interpret and make

meaning of challenging situations, as well

as physically, at the level of immune func-

tion and health outcomes. I examine the

role of the family in these risk pathways,

for example, by examining how various

caregiving and family processes can be pro-

tective to children.

I first focused on family and sociodemo-

graphic stress (e.g., family and community

discord, low socioeconomic stress), then

began to also look at pediatric illness con-

texts. The danger and fear inherent in

medical threats to children render disease

contexts—such as chronic asthma and can-

cer—as particularly salient contexts for

research pertaining to threat.

What are your current research interests

and activities?

To VCU, I will be bringing a short term, lon-

gitudinal project that examines how chil-

dren and families cope during diagnosis

and the initial phases of treatment for

childhood cancer. I am examining the im-

pact of socdiodemographic stress, child

and family coping and child health behav-

iors on child immune and mental health

outcomes. For example, I am wondering if

the family’s reaction to the initial diagnosis

and treatment (i.e., family routines and

communication styles, child emotional se-

curity) impacts child immune and mental

health during and following treatment.

With this work, I hope to address an anom-

aly in the pediatric cancer literature: many

children and families appear to function

relatively well initially (i.e., they rally to

fight the disease), but in the longterm can

suffer multiple deleterious emotional and

mental health effects (e.g., symptoms of

post-traumatic stress). Ultimately, I hope

this work can be applied to assist families

at the time of diagnosis and treatment

with the intention of preventing future

negative effects.

What do you do in your spare time?

I have twin daughters, age 5, with whom I

spend most of my spare time. We like to

be outdoors, hiking and enjoying nature;

when it rains, we all love to read. I also

love to travel and seem particularly drawn

to Central American countries.

Name one “little known fact” about your-self.

I come from a family of commercial apia-

rists (beekeepers). It’s such an interesting

field and always a fun topic of conversation

– people have strong feelings

about bees!

Rob Goodman came to our social psychol-

ogy doctoral program in in 2009 after re-

ceiving undergraduate degrees in both

psychology and religious studies in 2007

and a master’s in experimental psychology

from Cleveland State University in 2009.

He claims no hometown saying, “I was a

Navy brat, so I never stayed in one place

for too long.” He has worked under the

mentorship of Kirk Brown, Ph. D., while at

VCU and expects to graduate with his own

Ph.D. this spring. We caught up with him

recently and asked him to tell our readers

about his interesting work.

Describe your research and teaching in-terests.

My research program implements a social-

affective neuroscience approach to under-

stand how a particular kind of awareness

known as mindfulness – an alert and re-

ceptive awareness of the present moment

– influences emotional experience and

memory function across physiological,

behavioral and psychosocial levels of anal-

ysis. At the broadest level, the aim of my

research is to extend mindfulness theory

by examining the constituent processes

that facilitate mindfulness and influence

basic emotion and memory processes. I

have recently extended these lines of in-

quiry into applied domains, including geri-

atric care and education. Accordingly, I

have two intersecting lines of interdiscipli-

nary research. First, my research exam-

ines how mindfulness influences the regu-

lation and experience of emotions, partic-

ularly under conditions of threat; second, I

examine how mindfulness affects memory

-related processes, such as the content

and accuracy of memory and the subjec-

tive experience of remembering.

I am thankful for the many opportunities I

have had to grow and develop as an in-

structor during my time at VCU and active-

ly seek opportunities to learn new meth-

ods that will keep my students engaged. I

recently completed the Preparing Future

Faculty Program to enhance my pedagogi-

cal training. At VCU, I have had the oppor-

tunity to teach the undergraduate courses

Social Psychology and The Application of

Statistics to Psychology and I am currently

working as a lab instructor for Dr. Linda

Zyzniewski’s statistics course this spring.

One aspect I particularly enjoy about

teaching is how closely it intersects with

my research interests in mindfulness. Ex-

emplary teaching requires a particular

sensitivity to context, such that an instruc-

tor knows when to pull back from planned

lecturing to honor moments of student-

directed learning. Students recognize

when their time is being honored. By

practicing mindfulness during my interac-

tions with students I improve as an in-

structor. At the same time I build a deep-

er first-person understanding of a mental

quality central to my research interests.

Describe your work on the grant you re-ceived from the Mind and Life Institute.

One line of my research recently received

funding by the Mind and Life Institute to

examine mindfulness training as a way to

slow the decline of several cognitive ca-

pacities among a community sample of

aging adults at risk for mild cognitive im-

pairment. Mild cognitive impairment is a

state of cognitive decline between typical

aging and dementia that is characterized

by impaired cognitive functioning. This

randomized controlled trial will examine

the influence of two stress reduction pro-

grams on neural measures of cognitive

functioning related to mild cognitive im-

pairment. Additionally, the study will use

mobile phone devices to assess the cogni-

tive functioning of participants as they

move throughout their daily life. Taken

together, these measures will allow for

tests of whether treatment-induced

changes in neurological activity are trans-

latable into functional, real-world benefits

in the day-to-day life of senior citizens.

The interventions are scheduled to begin

this term and our team is excited by the

opportunity to watch seniors from the

community improve their quality of life

through these stress reduction programs.

What are your plans for the future?

I am currently on the academic job market

seeking a tenure track faculty position at

institutions that balance their value of

scholarship and teaching. Ideally, I’d like

to obtain employment at a university that

will provide me with equal time to work

closely with undergraduates on rigorous

psychological research, and teach. On the

teaching side, I definitely have an affinity

for teaching statistics, particularly because

students are often uncertain about the

connection between psychology and sta-

tistics. It is very exciting to me to help

these students recognize something novel

and valuable that they hadn’t thought of

before. In short, while the precise details

of my future are uncertain at the moment,

I am certain it will include research and

scholarship.

Graduate Student Spotlight

Robert Goodman, M.A., Social Psychology program

What do you do in your spare time?

In my spare time I enjoy backpacking, particularly

on the Appalachian trail south of Shenandoah

National Park. Virginia is a very beautiful part of

the country and spending time in the forest is one

of my favorite ways to spend my free time. An-

other hobby, of course, is meditation (which I also

enjoy doing in the forest). For the last two years I

have helped organize Sit and Sutta Study, a VCU

student organization that meets weekly to prac-

tice meditation and discuss the teachings of the

historical Buddha. Finally, a current hobby is

watching VCU basketball with friends. Let’s go

VCU!

Jasmine Abrams, M.S.,

a doctoral student in

the health psychology

program, recently won

an F31 research grant

from the National Insti-

tutes of Health for a project entitled,

"Psychosociocultural Determinants of Cardiovas-

cular Disease Risk among Black Women." The

study will address important gaps in the literature

by using innovative methods (i.e., objective

measures of health via heart rate and biometric

data) to assess the impact of internalization of the

culturally salient Strong Black Woman schema

and emotion regulation on cardiovascular disease

risk. Results will inform future research and ulti-

mately the development of culturally specific pre-

vention strategies to decrease cardiovascular risk

in black women. Broadly, Abrams is interested in

global health prevention research with an empha-

sis on chronic illnesses.

Grad students in feel-good video of the year!

Elizabeth Robinson

Emily Wheat

When Shaka Smart and several players from the VCU men’s basketball team

paid a visit to Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU to spread some holiday

cheer in December, a party broke out! The players, patients and service pro-

viders participated in a video lip dub of Katy Perry’s “Roar” that captures the

wonderful spirit of CHoR. Clinical psychology students Elizabeth Robinson,

M.S., and Emily Wheat, M.S., happened to be around that day and joined in

the fun. Their individual moments of fame come at about 3:33 in the video.

Robinson and Wheat are practicum students at CHoR for the hematology/

oncology (Robinson) and cystic fibrosis (Wheat) clinics.

Jordan Quaglia, M.S., left, Morgan Maxwell, M.S., and Joshua Brevard, M.S.,

take a well-deserved break on W. Franklin St. on a cold day in January.

Quaglia and Maxwell are in the social psychology program and Brevard is in

the health psychology program. Look for great things from these three!

Consider a student struggling in school

to pay attention, to make smooth tran-

sitions between English and math

class, to keep his hands to himself, to

control his impulse to laugh out loud

during instruction. Perhaps the child

has multiple tutors for his various clas-

ses and a history of poor grades and

problem behaviors as far back as pre-

school.

Zewelanji Serpell, Ph.D., associate

professor of psychology, readily

recognizes such difficulties as

possible indicators of poor execu-

tive functioning. Executive func-

tioning refers to our ability to

reason, solve problems, plan

ahead, switch between tasks and

delay gratification. She and other

researchers have found that the-

se skills are more malleable than

we previously imagined and, that

our brains can be trained to oper-

ate more efficiently.

The more traditional approach to ad-

dressing struggling students’ difficul-

ties is through one-on-one content

tutoring with an individual proficient in

the subject matter of difficulty. Stud-

ies show, however, that this type of

intervention does not produce a

meaningful impact on academic

achievement, particularly among mi-

nority students. A different approach

that is gaining popularity is to directly

train cognitive skills independently

from academic material.

With funding from the National Sci-

ence Foundation, Serpell and collabo-

rators from Virginia State University

are studying whether cognitive train-

ing through commercially available

“brain training” programs improves

executive functions in African Ameri-

can students from middle school

through college. Preliminary findings

suggest that computer-based training

for just one hour per day for five days

a week for 15 weeks in a school con-

text improves students' cognitive skills.

The training tasks involve activities

known to stimulate various executive

functions, such as working memory

and holding attention.

Serpell and her team have learned –

unsurprisingly – that training one-on-

one with a human works better than

training with a computer-based pro-

gram. However, one-on-one methods,

she reports, are not practical for wide-

spread use in public schools that fre-

quently lack the human resources nec-

essary to provide individualized in-

struction. As such, developing more

effective computer-based programs is

an important goal of her research. To

accomplish this goal, she and research-

ers at the University of California San

Diego have been studying student en-

gagement, motivation and affect dur-

ing training sessions to understand

what specific aspects of facial expres-

sion and non-verbal behavior human

trainers use to effectively train

students, and to see if these

strategies can be replicated in

an automated or computer-

based system.

Serpell’s second project, one

for which she admits having a

special passion, involves a

deeper examination of the

pliability of brain functioning

using cognitive activities in-

volved with playing chess. It

turns out that the particular set of

skills required to play chess – fore-

casting moves, pattern recognition,

mental imagery processing, etc. – map

very well onto components of execu-

tive functioning. Funded by the Insti-

tute of Educational Sciences, Serpell

collaborates with faculty at the Univer-

Research Spotlight

Zewelanji Serpell, Ph.D.

Executive functioning

refers to our ability to

reason, solve problems, plan

ahead, switch between tasks

and delay gratification.

sity of Cambridge and a local chess

company on a project exploring

whether cognitive activities associated

with playing chess improve executive

functions and whether these improve-

ments boost academic performance in

African American students in local in-

ner city elementary schools. The chess

curriculum under investigation was

developed by department alumna Te-

resa Parr (B.S. ‘93, M.S. ‘95, Ph.D. ‘99)

and the first African American

grandmaster of chess, Maurice Ashley.

Ashley says, “Playing chess is really

about making a series of critical deci-

sions move after move, and therefore

forces the player to be alert, vigilant,

cunning, patient and focused at all

times.”

Reporting on her project’s progress,

Serpell excitedly describes her obser-

vations of students making the transi-

tion from a chaotic and unruly group of

third and fourth graders at the begin-

ning of a school year to one that

demonstrates discipline, attentiveness

and engagement at the commence-

ment of the end-of-year chess tourna-

ment. “The strength of this project is

that it scientifically tests whether cog-

nitive skills previously thought to be

stable are trainable. As a training con-

text, chess playing affords many bene-

fits: it is engaging and intense, so stu-

dents practice these skills hard and

often, all the while receiving lots of

feedback and reinforcement.” Serpell

is looking forward to examining wheth-

er their qualitative observations bear

out in the data they have collected.

This overarching commitment to de-

veloping innovative approaches to pro-

moting school success, particularly

among students who are struggling

academically, is a common thread in

all of Serpell’s research efforts.

A new faculty member this year in the

Department of Psychology, Serpell

says she came to VCU for the research

opportunities—new faculty collabora-

tions, working with VCU’s diverse stu-

dent body and getting involved with

efforts to improve outcomes for K-12

students attending urban public

schools. Serpell’s community-

engaged, translational scholarship ex-

emplifies department and university

initiatives to build high impact re-

search programs that have practical

benefits for the community at-large.

The Department of Psychology hosted its third annual Veterans Day event and reception for veterans who have served or were

serving in the military (Active Duty, Reserves or National Guard) and their families. The event included the panel discussion

“Community-Based Behavioral Health Resources for Veterans.” The panel members were Kristen Lessig, Sportable; John Paul

Cimino, Lewis B. Puller, Jr. Veterans Benefits Clinic at the College of William & Mary and Helping Veterans through Higher Education;

Jennifer Drake Patrick, Operation Educate the Educator and Sean Longnecker, VCU Student Veterans Association.

After the discussion, representatives from various community-based behavioral health service organizations were on hand to

provide information and raise awareness of some of the services available to veterans and their families.

Submitted by Jennifer Elswick, director for

strategic initiatives and assistant to chair.

Veterans

Day

2013

Jennifer Joy-

Gaba, Ph.D., is

an assistant

professor in

our depart-

ment and is

part of the

social psychol-

ogy program. This past academic year, Joy

-Gaba launched a new undergraduate

course entitled Introduction to Teaching.

The purpose of the course was to intro-

duce undergraduate students to basic is-

sues related to teaching, with an emphasis

on learning ways to increase teaching

effectiveness.

Many of the undergraduate courses

offered at VCU adopt a large lecture for-

mat; however, Joy-Gaba’s course was in

the style of a seminar – one that took on

many forms as the semester progressed.

Some weeks, students engaged in small

group discussions and were

given the opportunity to pre-

sent on material before class.

On other occasions, students

took part in an ongoing and

enriching dialogue posing

questions to one another, de-

bating the merits of particular

teaching strategies and

thoughtfully considering ques-

tions posed by Joy-Gaba.

Student discussions spanned

various topics, including how

to lead a class discussion, inte-

grate teaching strategies to

increase student engagement

and evaluate students’ under-

standing of course material.

Students received information

about how to approach large

lecture courses, lead discus-

sions, generate quality items

for exams and grade effective-

ly. Throughout the course, students also

learned about the importance of a syllabus

– its purpose in effectively guiding and

structuring a course, as well as the materi-

al that should be included.

In addition to participating in class discus-

sion, students were asked to write a series

of reaction papers through the semester.

Such papers were designed to provoke

critical thinking about the undergraduate

preceptor program and issues related to

teaching more generally. Reaction papers

were not only a way for Joy-Gaba to criti-

cally evaluate students’ thought processes,

ideas and responses to material covered,

they also stimulated rich class discussions.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of Joy-

Gaba’s course was that it was designed to

simulate many of the experiences that stu-

dents would encounter in future teaching

careers. For instance, at the end of the

semester, students were asked to write a

teaching statement delineating teaching

goals and style. In their statements, stu-

dents were asked to address questions

such as “How will you manage challenges

you may face as an instructor?” and “How

do you perceive your role as an instruc-

tor?”

Joy-Gaba’s preceptor program and corre-

sponding seminar was a tremendous suc-

cess. One student remarked, “[The

course] really helped me solidify my future

goals, specifically within the teaching are-

na.” Another said, “Before taking the

class, I guess I did not understand all of the

details that go into teaching. I mean, eve-

rything has to be planned from what mate-

rial will be covered in class to specific ex-

am questions. This was definitely a neat

eye-opener.”

In Joy-Gaba’s words,

Becoming a preceptor is an excel-

lent opportunity for undergradu-

ates to gain insight into the teach-

ing process. The course, Guided

Inquiry in Psychology, is in-

tended to compliment the pre-

ceptor experience. For exam-

ple, we discuss ways to effec-

tively lead class discussion. In

turn, students can employ the-

se methods in the course in

which they are preceptoring.

The Department of Psychology

hopes to see the development

of similar courses to Joy-

Gaba’s in upcoming semesters.

Teaching Spotlight: Undergraduate Preceptor Program

Jennifer Joy-Gaba, Ph.D.

pre·cep·tor

prē′sĕp′tər

n.

1. A teacher; an instructor.

2. An expert or specialist who gives practical experience and training to a student.

3. The head of a preceptory.

After visiting Richmond during his senior

year of high school, Haroon Popal, class of

2014, decided to attend VCU. “I liked the

idea of being in a city while in college be-

cause there would be plenty for me to do

outside of academics.” In particular, he

really enjoyed the art, music and variety of

cuisines that Richmond had to offer.

Popal was also interested in going to a

university with a prestigious medical

school where undergraduates could be

involved in research projects.

When asked why he chose psychology as

his major, Popal says his choice reflected

an interest nurtured by a particularly in-

teresting high school psychology course

and, too, that psychology is a major relat-

ed to the medical field. He indeed has

interests in pursuing a career in medicine

and is currently pursuing minors in biology

and chemistry as part of that preparation.

About being a psychology major, he says,

“After taking a few psychology courses at

VCU, I realized I made the right choice. I

am always excited to go to my psychology

classes.”

Popal’s favorite psychology classes have

been Learning and Cognition with Jennifer

Joy-Gaba, Ph.D., and Physiological Psychol-

ogy with Joseph Porter, Ph.D. Learning

and Cognition was one of his favorite clas-

ses because he is interested in how indi-

viduals learn and form memories. He says

that it was interesting to learn about

something relevant to his everyday life

and that Joy-Gaba made the class very

interesting by explaining studies that were

related to what they were learning. With

Porter, he particularly enjoyed learning

about different types of conditioning be-

cause of his interests in behavioral psy-

chology and brain functioning. “I liked

how Dr. Porter brought in his own experi-

ences and talked about the research he

does.” Inspired by Porter’s course, Popal

is now considering neuroscience research

as a future specialty.

Popal is very active in our department’s

research mission and currently works in

our behavioral pharmacology lab on an

animal model study that is investigating

drug discrimination of ketamine in rats

under Porter’s direction. Taking good ad-

vantage of VCU’s many opportunities to

experience interdisciplinary research, he

has also taken part in the VCU Honors

Summer Undergraduate Research Pro-

gram where he had the opportunity to

work in Biomedical Engineering’s Rehabili-

tation Technology and Haptics Lab under

the direction of Dianne Pawluk, Ph.D. The

lab study under investigation explored the

viscoelastic properties of intra-abdominal

organs. He has also worked in the VCU

Center on Health Disparities with Allison

Vanderbilt,

Ed.D., where

he contribut-

ed to the sta-

tistical anal-

yses for sev-

eral of Van-

derbilt’s collaborative projects.

As the crowning achievement of his under-

graduate career, he recently won a very

competitive scholarship for up to $20,000

for educational and living expenses for the

2013-2014 academic year from the Na-

tional Institutes of Health. In addition to

the scholarship, Popal will receive a paid

10-week position at the NIH research la-

boratory and will work for the NIH for at

least one year after graduation. He was

one of 19 students chosen from more than

250 applicants nationwide for the scholar-

ship.

When Popal has time, he enjoys catching

up on television shows he has missed from

working so hard! He also enjoys reading

and is most interested in fiction, but will

also pick up a biography or history narra-

tive if it sparks his interest.

We congratulate Popal on his stellar aca-

demic performance and look forward to

even greater accomplishments from this

rising star.

Submitted by Samantha Miadich, doctoral student in

the health psychology program

Undergraduate Student Spotlight

Haroon Popal, Class of ‘14

Psychology undergraduate student, chef

and disability activist,

Jenson Larrimore (class of ‘14), was featured in Style Weekly’s popular an-nual feature, “Top 40 Under 40: The Young Standouts Who Are Lifting the Community to Greater Heights.” Read the article.

Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in

Psychology, held an event in November to

spread awareness and raise support for vic-

tims of domestic violence, intimate part-

ner violence and sexual violence. The group

discussed services offered, whom to contact

for information and common

myths about domestic violence.

Hulsey Van Tongeren Green

Karen Kersting, M.A., M.S. , doctoral candidate in counseling psychology, was recently invited to speak at TEDxRVAWomen, the first independently organized TEDxWomen event in the region. Kersting’s ex-periences teaching The Psychology of Women engendered a passion for examining the tough decisions women face when trying to balance career and family. Kersting’s doctoral dissertation, which she suc-cessfully completed in October, examines one of these issues — The Ticking of the “Biological Clock”: Worry about Future Fertility in Nulliparous Women — with findings relevant to the significant number of women putting off motherhood in their 20s and 30s. Prior to graduate school, Kersting worked as a professional journalist at Bloomberg News, National Geographic Channel and the American Psychologi-cal Association’s Mon-itor on Psychology and gradPsych maga-zines. In her spare time, she swims with the River City Magnolias, a vin-tage-style water bal-let team she founded in 2013.

Read about some new findings from our department’s investigators. A sampling of the re-

search questions addressed are:

Taking another look: Can we replicate popular

psychology findings?

How can clinicians promote effective asthma

management and better asthma control

among adolescents with asthma?

How good are we at predicting our future

happiness or sadness regarding hurtful offens-

es in our romantic relationships?

New Research Findings

Hulsey Van Tongeren Green

Nuran E. Korkmaz, Ph.D., was born

and raised in Turkey, where she re-

ceived her bachelor’s degree from

Ankara University in the Faculty of

Divinity. She continued there for her

graduate education and earned two

master’s degrees—one in the history

of sects and the other in the psychol-

ogy of religion. She received her Ph.D. in philosophy and reli-

gious science in 2012. Since 2002, Korkmaz has been working as

a research assistant at Ankara University’s Faculty of Divinity in

the Department of the Psychology of Religion.

Korkmaz’s research interests are cross-cultural relationships

within the field of psychology of religion and more specifically,

the relationships between self-compassion, forgiveness and psy-

chological health. During her visit, she is working with Everett

Worthington, Ph.D., and his Positive Psychology Research Group

(PPRG) on a project examining the relationship between self-

compassion and psychological health in a cross-cultural context.

Korkmaz believes that working with a VCU mentor and partici-

pating in the research group’s endeavors are very important ex-

periences in her academic career. When she finishes her study

at VCU, she plans to publish some articles with Worthington and

other colleagues from the PPRG and to continue to build her re-

lationships with colleagues from various psychology depart-

ments. Korkmaz says she enjoys and gains great benefit from

the interaction among different cultures and religions, noting

that VCU gives her that atmosphere. In her spare time, she en-

joys walking, watching movies with her family, doing illumination

(tezhip), cooking and sampling cuisines from different cultures.

Muzafar Razali, Ph.D., is a senior

lecturer at the Sultan Idris Education

University in Malaysia in the Depart-

ment of Psychology and Counseling

and is faculty of education and hu-

man development. His research ex-

pertise is drug abuse education, pre-

vention and counseling. Razali spent

time at VCU before as a 2009-10 fel-

low in the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program in VCU’s

Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies under the mentorship of

Wendy Kliewer, Ph.D. He is working with Kliewer anew on de-

veloping a model of drug abuse prevention for adolescents in

Malaysia based on risk and protective factors.

During his visit, Razali will explore the latest prevention models

and techniques related to drug abuse counseling and will work

on writing journal articles for publications. After his year long

visit, he looks forward to continuing the collaborative academic

and research partnership between VCU and the Sultan Idris Edu-

cation University in the area of drug abuse education, preven-

tion and counseling.

Timothy Wilson, Ph.D., Sherrell J. Aston Professor of Psychology at the University of Virgin-

ia, has many of the most cited papers in social psychology over the last several decades. In

fact, he has three papers in the prestigious journal Science over just the last five years! He

has written well-regarded textbooks and wonderfully reviewed popular books on topics

such as the adaptive unconscious and psychological change. Wilson has inspired new fields

in social psychology and is particularly known for work on self-knowledge and the limits of

introspection and how we deal with uncertainty. He was one of the first researchers to

study affective forecasting, which is how we predict our emotional reactions to future

events. It turns out that we typically overestimate how strongly we will feel and how long

we will feel an emotion, whether positive or negative. For example, you may think that

your wedding will make you feel much happier for months, when actually you will feel

somewhat happier for weeks. On the flip side, you may predict that if your partner breaks

up with you, you will feel devastated for years, but you won’t feel as bad as you think, and you will recover more quickly than you

think. This is an important area for all of psychology because if we can’t accurately predict our emotional reactions, then we might

make the wrong choices about what we think will make us happy. - Jeff Green, Ph.D., director of the social psychology program

Special Visitor

International Visiting Scholars

Nuran Korkmaz,Ph.D., and Muzafar Razali, Ph.D.

CONGRATULATIONS,

December 2013 Graduates!

Doctor of Philosophy

Alison Eonta

Tracey Gendron

Leila Islam

Alison Kramer

Aaron Martin

Cassandra Pasquariello

Katherine Taylor

Jason Wiebelhaus

Master of Science

Laura Caccavale

Jennifer Coleman

Nadia Islam

Benjamin Rosen

Meghan Smith

Bachelor of Science

Samaneh Abyar

Emily Adams

Asiah Afsharie

Sobia Ahmed

DeMonica Alexander

Jasalle Allen

Kamar Alsamman

Ashley Atkinson

Kinnera Atluri

Marjorie Baja

Rebecca Barr

Rizelle Baul

Ja'nice Benjamin

Shakeyra Birt

Dora Braxton

Tyra Brogdon

Ayanna Broom

Candace Brown

Edniesha Brown

Brittany Bush

Devin Byrne

Christina Carreiro

Grace Carscadden

Andrew Carter

Jacob Clements

Kelsea Copeland

Maryann Cotman

Clinton Crosby

Alexandra Dahl

Miriam Darby

Bryonna Davis

Kristin Davis

Myrna De Jesus

Molly Dearhart

Justin Delaney

Zumreta Dudic

Eric Dugan

Ashley Dunphy

Mary Elyiace

Marwa Fadlalla

Benjamin Fauber

William Fletcher

Meghann Forshey

Randolph Fuhrman

Ashley Gibson

Danielle Gibson

Mariah Gilbert

Maria Govind

Travis Grammo

Lashaun Greene

Melissa Grignol

Jessica Griswold

Stephanie Gross

Nyra Gumbs

Taylor Hamilton

Jessica Harris

Louis Hartman

Melissa Haslam

Crystal Hermano

Ruth Hewitson

Katherine Huber

Sevindzh Izrailova

Emily Jackson

Britney Jefferson

Cara Jennings

Jennifer Jimenez

Jennica Johansen

Hannah Johnson

Sara Jones

William Kazas

Rebecca Keel

Leah Keuper

Hira Khaliq

Omid Khanzadeh

Rebecca Kiefer

Balin Kim

Erika King

Ryan King

Evan Kirschner

Taylor Lambert

Laurenzee Landicho

Brandon Lette

Caitlyn MacQueen

Hannah Mey

Leah Mirzayan

Tasya Mitchell

Sarah Mizelle

Alexander Moe

Christina Monaco

Attallah Muhammad

Mariam Nadri

Mitali Patel

Tegan Petersen

Alexa Poe

Courtney Proffitt

Kelsey Richardson

Crystal Richmond

Brendan Riley

Karen Rodriguez

Angelo Rose

Lauren Schefflien

Katherine Schihl

Trish Stanley

Ian Staples

Leah Staples

Melvena Talley

Sara Taylor

Megan Theuerkauf

Chelsea Thornton

Amy Trigger

Jessika Turner

Gabriel Anth Villegas-Aloran

Jason Von Unwerth

Kelsey Wash

Jasmine West

Shanthi Wickramasinghe

Melinda Williams

The speaker for the diploma ceremony was our very own Barbara Myers, Ph.D., associate pro-

fessor of psychology and director of our developmental psychology program. Myers is a de-

partment treasure and has been at VCU since 1979. She received her Ph.D. from Temple Uni-

versity in 1981. She is an active teacher, researcher and scholar and currently serves as the

associate editor for the Journal of Child and Family Studies. Myers’ research interests are with

two groups of high-risk children — children with autism and their families, and children and

families affected by incarceration. She has previously served on the Board of Juvenile Justice

for the Commonwealth of Virginia overseeing the policies and practices of juvenile correction-

al centers, detention facilities and group homes across the state. Students know her as a

quintessential teacher.

Virginia Commonwealth University is an equal opportunity, affirmative action university providing access to

education and employment without regard to age, race, color, national origin, gender, religion, sexual

orientation, veteran’s status, political affiliation or disability.

Psychology faculty celebrate our December graduates with James Coleman, dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences.

Kathleen Ingram, Ph.D., left, Micah McCreary, Ph.D., James Coleman, Ph.D., and Bruce Rybarczyk, Ph.D.

Virginia Commonwealth University

College of Humanities and Sciences

806 W. Franklin St.

P.O. Box 842018

Richmond, VA 23284

Phone: 804.828.1193

Fax: 804.828.2237

Email: jlelswick@vcu.edu

Website: psychology.vcu.edu